Russian market saturated by domestic poultry production

Russia plans to increase poultry meat production to more than six million metric tonnes (MMT) per year by 2020. Forecasts for domestic poultry meat production in 2014 however have been revised downward to 3.1 MMT as a slowdown in the growth of domestic production, which is at its lowest rate since 1999, has begun (Figure 1).

High feed costs and delayed governmental support have affected the industry financially. Russian producers have nearly saturated the domestic market by supplying more than 85% of consumption needs.

Producers will now have to look to export markets in order to further drive growth. Consequently, the Russian government has been discussing a possible future system of quotas to limit production of poultry meat and eggs to avoid an oversupply situation.

About 71% of Russia's total production in 2013 came from 20 large poultry producing regions (68% in 2012), with Belgorod Oblast in the west of the country producing the most, 759.5 TMT (Figure 2).